Policy Diffusion among Democracies and Autocracies: A Comparison of Trade Reforms and Nuclear Energy Policy
| Published date | 01 November 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12373 |
| Date | 01 November 2016 |
Policy Diffusion among Democracies and
Autocracies: A Comparison of Trade Reforms
and Nuclear Energy Policy
Thomas Richter
GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Stefan Wurster
Bavarian School of Public Policy Technical University of Munich
Abstract
This paper reviews the existing comparative literature with regard to differences and similarities of policy diffusion between
democratic and authoritarian regimes. There has been an extensive discussion of causes and effects of policy diffusion for
democracies, but the literature on autocracies lacks similar focus and scope. Similarly, research on the patterns and causes of
policies’diffusion across regime types is virtually non-existent. After some theoretical considerations about regime effects on
diffusion in the first part of this paper, we analyse data on foreign trade regulations and nuclear power plants and compare
results across regime types. Based on cross-time cross-section regression models, we can show that, depending on the specific
policy field, regime type is of less importance for diffusion processes than theoretically expected. This highlights a need for
further detailed research on the general role of regime type regarding policy diffusion.
Policy diffusion
At the beginning of the 21st century, globalisation processes
have increased tremendously among most countries. One
result of this is rising interdependent exchange in regard to
policy solutions between states with different political and
economic legacies. Accordingly, studying the diffusion of
policy innovations has gained considerable momentum
among current research in political science (e.g. Dobbin
et al., 2007; Gilardi, 2012). An important conclusion from
studying these processes is that diffusion is no longer
restricted to traditionally interlinked states, such as the Wes-
tern world of industrialised democracies. In this new millen-
nium, the interdependent exchange of policy innovations
increasingly takes place across geographical, cultural, eco-
nomic and political boundaries.
This paper discusses selected publications from the com-
parative politics literature that looks at potentially different
patterns of policy diffusions comparing democratic and
authoritarian regimes.
1
Although there has been an exten-
sive discussion of the causes and effects of policy diffusion
for democracies, the literature on autocracies lacks similar
focus and scope. It is only during the last couple of years
that scholars have started to compare the character and
quality of policies between these two different regime types
(e.g. Wurster, 2013). However, systematic research on the
patterns and differences of policy diffusion across both
democracies and autocracies is virtually non-existent.
Therefore, in this article we aim to conduct an initial analysis
by looking at two different policy areas that have potentially
been affected by strong diffusion processes: foreign trade
reforms and nuclear energy policy. More specifically, we
seek to address the following questions.
1. What difference does the regime type (democracy versus
autocracy) make for the diffusion of policy change com-
pared to conventional explanations like geographic prox-
imity, trade intensity, and cultural affinity?
2. Are there different patterns of policy diffusion among
autocracies compared to democracies depending on the
policy area concerned?
To the best of our knowledge, no previous literature has
specifically addressed the question of whether regime type
makes a difference for the diffusion of policy innovations.
Therefore, our selection of policy fields, which focuses on
the change of trade restrictions as well as the spread of
nuclear power and the shutdown of nuclear power plants,
has been guided by looking at a combination of broad and
pragmatic criteria. First, data on policy outputs should be
available over as many years as possible for both democra-
cies and autocracies at a similar level of validity and consis-
tency. Second, policy diffusion should be likely, in principle,
because of a strong economic relevance of the chosen field
and the existence of international organisations with at least
the capacity to provide information and to monitor policy
change. There should also be clear alternatives regarding
Global Policy (2016) 7:4 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12373 ©2016 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Global Policy Volume 7 . Issue 4 . November 2016 541
Special Section Article
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